Interest builds around possible changes to NASCAR schedule

AndyMarquisLive said:
3,500 people in a sport where weekly shows don't draw but 300-500 people anymore.

Come on man.
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I agree that 'huge' is relative.

So what are they offering besides the racing? What makes it an 'event'? How do we break down how much of the enhanced attendance is due to the sideshows vs. how much is due to just hosting a regional touring series? People that attend a local track only once a month or less may come out for some different racing even without the gimmicks.

I guess from a promoter's view it doesn't matter if why they're showing up as long as they're buying tickets. I'd love to understand how the cranberries and green beans came to be regarded as just as important (or even more important) than the turkey.
 
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Charlie Spencer said:
So what are they offering besides the racing? What makes it an 'event'? How do we break down how much of the enhanced attendance is due to the sideshows vs. how much is due to just hosting a regional touring series? People that attend a local track only once a month or less may come out for some different racing even without the gimmicks.
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CARS Tour promotes well. Sometimes they'll have a concert, sometimes they'll have something else going on. And it feels like something special when they come to town.

NASCAR has 38 races. Most of those races are at tracks they run at twice a year. It's gotten stale. Especially since it's the same thing ... a race, a pre-race concert with some bro country star, and a casino nearby.

I don't think any track should have more than one race myself, not even Daytona (since nothing's sacred anymore and we've moved off July). Charlotte might be the lone exception since they have the Roval. Add dates at Iowa, Gateway, Milwaukee (if possible), Portland, Nashville (if possible), and add these street races in Denver, maybe something in New York, and cut the schedule down to 26 races.
 
  1. Daytona 500 - Daytona International Speedway
  2. Las Vegas Motor Speedway
  3. Auto Club Speedway
  4. Sonoma Raceway
  5. Homestead-Miami Speedway
  6. Texas Motor Speedway
  7. Talladega Superspeedway
  8. Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville (Wednesday night race)
  9. ISM Raceway Phoenix
  10. Atlanta Motor Speedway
  11. Martinsville Speedway (Wednesday night race)
  12. Dover International Speedway
  13. All Star Race -- Bowman Gray Stadium (Thursday or Friday night race)
  14. Coca-Cola 600 - Charlotte Motor Speedway (Monday afternoon/evening race)
  15. The Milwaukee Mile
  16. Pocono Raceway
  17. Gateway Motorsports Park
  18. Fourth of July - Richmond Raceway
  19. Portland International Raceway
  20. Kansas Speedway (Wednesday night race)
  21. Denver street race (Mile High Stadium) (Sunday night race)
  22. Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Round of 12)
  23. Watkins Glen International (Round of 12)
  24. Iowa Speedway (Round of 12) (Wednesday night race)
  25. New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Round of 8)
  26. Chicagoland Speedway (Round of 8)
  27. Bristol Motor Speedway (Round of 8) (Wednesday night race)
  28. Southern 500 - Darlington (Championship) (Monday night race)
 
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I'm all for exploring new markets but ehhhhh on stock cars on street circuits. Safety at a lot of those places is honestly questionable and packing 36+ Cup cars onto one seems like a recipe for a caution fest. As far as passing ability goes even Australia Supercars are cutting downforce 15% because the product needs shaking up. Would really depend what circuits they'd look at adding and which to cut to see if it'd truly be a good decision as far as racing product goes.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I'm all for exploring new markets but ehhhhh on stock cars on street circuits. Safety at a lot of those places is honestly questionable and packing 36+ Cup cars onto one seems like a recipe for a caution fest. As far as passing ability goes even Australia Supercars are cutting downforce 15% because the product needs shaking up. Would really depend what circuits they'd look at adding and which to cut to see if it'd truly be a good decision as far as racing product goes.
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NASCAR probably wants a NYC (area) street course race. It doesn't make sense to have Long Beach AND Fontana. Portland doesn't make sense in my opinion. Toronto or Trois-Riveres would be cool.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Things have to be events nowadays though. CARS Tour puts on events when they go to Hickory, Rougemont, and Carteret County and they draw huge crowds.

The days of just saying "We're racing this weekend" or "NASCAR Cup Series race" are over. There has to be more to draw people in.
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The CARS Tour throwback weekend looks pretty dang cool.
 
Snappy D said:
If they do a street race or two fine....but it you also have fine road courses like Road America, Montreal, and Circuit Of The America’s waiting to be used for Cup
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I think you are on point with these tracks. A while back in a questionnaire NASCAR specifically mentioned, COTA, Road America, Mid Ohio and Mosports. For discussion they also threw in a few short tracks like Nashville, Iowa and Eldora. Given the commitment needed to get a race scheduled on a "street circuit" I don't see how that could be pulled off in time for when NASCAR announces the 2021 schedule.
BTW, I would think COTA is a front runner given the little "demonstration " run that recently occurred there.
 
DIDIT said:
I think you are on point with these tracks. A while back in a questionnaire NASCAR specifically mentioned, COTA, Road America, Mid Ohio and Mosports. For discussion they also threw in a few short tracks like Nashville, Iowa and Eldora. Given the commitment needed to get a race scheduled on a "street circuit" I don't see how that could be pulled off in time for when NASCAR announces the 2021 schedule.
BTW, I would think COTA is a front runner given the little "demonstration " run that recently occurred there.
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Forgot Mid Ohio, maybe that could be the NBC/NASCAR double header. Throw in that spectacular racing facility onto the list
 
AuzGrams said:
NASCAR probably wants a NYC (area) street course race. It doesn't make sense to have Long Beach AND Fontana. Portland doesn't make sense in my opinion. Toronto or Trois-Riveres would be cool.
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Dunno....Portland makes a lot of sense honestly. This is the corner that NASCAR isn't into.... That track would lend itself nicely to today's cars, and probably even better with the Next Gen IMO. I haven't been on the property in a number of years, so I don't know what they have done to bring IndyCar back, but they would probably need to dump money into it.
 
Revman said:
Dunno....Portland makes a lot of sense honestly. This is the corner that NASCAR isn't into.... That track would lend itself nicely to today's cars, and probably even better with the Next Gen IMO. I haven't been on the property in a number of years, so I don't know what they have done to bring IndyCar back, but they would probably need to dump money into it.
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I mentioned Portland on here a few years ago and someone responded with a reason a Nascar race wouldn't do good in the Northwest...but I can't remember what they said.
 
The Canadian Nascar Pinty's series has races on the streets of Toronto as part of the "Molson" Indy weekend , and has had races at the Edmonton airport as part of the Edmonton Indy, three rivers Quebec, circuit Gilles villeneuve in Montreal and all of them put on a pretty good show
 
I don't like street courses. They are concrete canyons and accidents can become road blocks - at least there would be plenty of red and yellow lights.
 
Street Circuits are worth an experiment. What NASCAR has been doing since 2004 clearly isn't working. I'm not strictly opposed to change or progress, unlike many of the luddities in the fanbase, but it has to at least, be something that needs to be changed. If we can't get fans to the track, bring the track to them, I say.
 
StandOnIt said:
Yeah it is interesting. I wonder what they do with it. looks like a ready made rally track at present. :D
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Golf tournament for charity, plenty of camp space, a track able to house IndyCar, then ARX (RIP), Drag Racing, and NASCAR.

Yeah, I can see WWT on the schedule really soon... Add it as another race for the Truck and Xfinity series. The ARCA series already races there, I have a feeling it will be added soon enough.
 
StandOnIt said:
I believe they already race the trucks and Indycar there.
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Oh yes, the truck series is a go for 2020, but the Xfinity series a of be a great addition to the schedule. Maybe between the road course frenzy in August would be a good addition.

I hate the off-season.
 
I could see Gateway on the 2021 Cup Calendar. One it's a great track with good racing, Two. St. Louis really seems to be a great market for auto racing due to the success of the Indycar and Truck Series races, as well as the success of the Gateway Dirt Nationals, and 3). It's only 15 minutes away from downtown St. Louis.
 
Gateway seems like the most likely track to be added to the new Cup schedule and more importantly the most likely to be a success at that level as well. Everything there has relatively high attendance levels, especially given their standalone nature. The combined Truck/IndyCar weekend coming up has potential to be huge.
 
I really want Gateway to get a cup date. Hopefully they have enough notice, as they really need to build in upgrades quickly. More grandstands/seats than currently configured, additional service facilities, parking, etc. It has great potential, is a quality challenging pseudo short track, and excellent support from the region.
 
Conover said:
I really want Gateway to get a cup date. Hopefully they have enough notice, as they really need to build in upgrades quickly. More grandstands/seats than currently configured, additional service facilities, parking, etc. It has great potential, is a quality challenging pseudo short track, and excellent support from the region.
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Gateway already can seat around 80,000.
 
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